CELEBRATING 1ST
ANNIVERSARY DECLARATION OF
BANGSAMORO REPUBLIK, USING ‘RULE OF LAW’ IN
LAND-GRABBING CAUSING MINDANAO WAR AND INVOKING
PHILIPPINE
CONSTITUTION IN PERPETUATING COLONIALISM

CELEBRATING
1ST ANNIVERSARY DECLARATION OF BANGSAMORO
REPUBLIK

This
month of August 2014 has registered
another milestone event for the MNLF-launched
freedom struggle of the Muslim and
Animist Lumad natives as well as
conscious Christians of the Bangsamoro
homeland of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan (MINSUPALA).

The
proclamation of the independence of the
United Federated States of Bangsamoro
Republik (UFSBR) by the MNLF leadership
in Zamboanga City simultaneously in
major MNLF camps in Mindanao on August
12, 2013 with Davao City as capital
center has a bright cause for
celebrating its first anniversary.

Just
as the MNLF freedom fighters gathered in
Mindanao island on August 12, this year,
in commemorating the 1st Anniversary of
the independence declaration of
Bangsamoro Republik highlighted by the
exhortation of MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari,
the well-known MNLF Peace Panel
Spokesman Reverend Absalom Cerveza had
informed the global media that, “the OIC
had rejected BBL and Chairman Nur
Misuari has to follow OIC.”

This
was in response to the invitation of a
member of Philippine Congress inviting
the MNLF Chairman to a congress hearing
on the enactment of a new law to
establish another version Philippine
autonomous government to be named “Bangsamoro.”
This is purportedly to replace the
farcical Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) created by Philippine
Congress under President Corazon C.
Aquino in 1987.

Quite similar with the rejection
of ARMM by the OIC and MNLF in 1987, the
Bangsamoro

Basic Law (BBL) concept crafted
today by the administration of President
Benigno S. Aquino III has to be also
rejected by the OIC and MNLF because it
is a far cry from the complete and
correct implementation of the
MNLF-OIC-GRP Jakarta Peace Agreements of
September 2, 1996.

Furthermore, it is
even worse now because the new Aquino government have not
respected the 1996 Peace Agreement, but instead decided to
come up with another peace agreement, declaring a “failed
experiment” the ARMM created by the previous Aquino regime.

Consequently, the
deceptive political course of action by the present Aquino
government compelled the MNLF to revert back to armed
freedom struggle to regain complete independence and
national self-determination for the Bangsamoro people by any
means possible. The MNLF succeeded to conduct peaceful
rallies in Davao, Basilan and Jolo calling for moral support
towards the sacred cause, but the Zamboanga City local
government violently suppressed the MNLF peace
demonstration. This led to the sudden eruption of bloody war
between the colonial Filipino military occupation forces and
the MNLF freedom fighters inside the city sometime September
2013.

The 20-day
September AFP-MNLF war caused devastating
humanitarian disaster and the burning of “10,160
houses and mosques” in the mostly-populated six
villages in the city center. The burning of civilian
homes and worship-houses was caused by AFP
helicopter and naval boat bombings similar to the
February 7, 1974 AFP-MNLF war that razed to ground
zero almost the entire town of Jolo. The 1974 Jolo
inferno resulted in the mass killing of more than
20,000 Muslim, Christian and Chinese civilian
residents.

USING
‘RULE OF LAW’ IN LAND-GRABBING AND CAUSING MINDANAO
WAR, AND INVOKING ‘PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION’ IN
JUSTIFYING PHILIPPINE COLONIALISM

Philippine
history is richly noted by the injustice,
exploitation and oppression conducted by the
Filipino colonizers against the colonized Muslim and
Animist Lumad natives of Mindanao. But the Christian
Filipino leaders have always refused to see the
light of historical reality.

Totally
insensitive to the inhumane cliché of ‘exploitation
of man by another man,’ the past Filipino
colonialist land-grabbers, disguised as ‘law
makers,’ used the majesty of the ‘rule of law’ in
land-grabbing the Bangsamoro homeland of Mindanao,
Sulu and Palawan (MINSUPALA) and the ancestral
domain of the Igorots of Cordillera Region
(‘Mountain Province’) in 1935 and 1946. This was
notoriously characterized by the Philippine
Commonwealth National Assembly Legislative Act No.
4197 of February 12, 1935 otherwise known as Quirino-Recto
Colonization Act, and the immoral arbitrary
annexation of the Bangsamoro and Igorot ancestral
homeland into America-created ‘Philippine Republic’
in July 4, 1946.

Clearly,
the injustice done has caused today the decades-long
Filipino-Moro war in Mindanao, registering more than
200,000 mortal casualties, countless material losses
and series of humanitarian disaster events. The
Mindanao war today has been considered the longest
running war in Asia, contributing to the ugly image
of the proud ‘Catholic Filipino nation’ as the
perennial ‘sick man of Asia.’

It is thus
seen that as long as peace is repeatedly betrayed by
the Philippine colonial government, the increase
rate of human and material losses as well as
humanitarian disaster scenarios is becoming more
certain.

In
analyzing the past historical events after the
illegal colonization and forced occupation of
Mindanao, the Manila government under different
presidential personalities have had used the old
‘Philippine Constitution’ and the 1987 ‘wishy-washy
Philippine Constitution’ in justifying the
perpetuation of Philippine colonialism in Bangsamoro
and Igorot ancestral homeland. Not to mention the
usage of brutish Philippine military ‘law of the
jungle’ that ‘might is right’ to inflict pain and
misery on the colonized victims.

It is sad
to note that the so-called Filipino patriotic
‘constitutionalists,’ like Father Joaquin Bernas,
Senator Merriam Defensor-Santiago, UP Dean Prof.
Magalona and others, have only turned blind eye to
the gross injustice committed by the past
unscrupulous Filipino politicians in justifying the
broad daylight land-grabbing of the historical lands
of the Indigenous peoples of Mindanao and
Cordillera.

Strangely now
questions and harsh realities come to mind, why there are
human beings born to lie, exploit and oppress their fellow
humans by using ‘rule of law’ and ‘constitution’ to justify
injustice, yet they profess to be conscious Christian
Catholics? Did Jesus Christ and other gods teach them to
glorify land-grabbing of ancestral homelands and killing of
colonized victims whose only fault in life is to dare and
struggle to reclaim their freedom and inherent properties?

Why are the proud
Filipino ‘constitutionalists’ without conscience and
heart to understand simply that land-grabbing is a
mortal sin against humanity because it entails
stealing the natural wealth of the colonized
natives? Worse still, why are the Filipino
‘constitutionalists” that morally courageous to
gospel, encourage and praise the Filipino military
war-mongers to kill and to massacre the native
inhabitants of Mindanao, including the aged, women
and children (not to include the raping of even
pregnant women) just to prove their colonial might?

Furthermore, why
is this cruel inhumanity and gruesome injustice done
against the Bangsamoro people, on the other hand, a
call of patriotism and love of country to both
Filipino colonialist land-grabbers and legal
‘constitutionalists’? Why can’t they open their eyes
and heart to see the true light that the monumental
injustice done is just built on colonization, mass
killing and continued war?

Thus closely viewing the
appalling situation, including the colonial slavery of the
Muslim and Lumad natives, it is truly a tragedy what the
colonized victims are enduring today.

Hence, the chronic and tragic condition should serve a
clarion call for the conscious Bangsamoro and Filipino
communities as well for the entire world to help end the
continuing violent hostilities in war-torn Mindanao. But it
would take more than a ceasefire and deceptive peace talks
and agreements. It would take peace. And peace cannot happen
without an end to colonization and occupation. This surely
speaks the truth about Mindanao peace. -osm/mnlf.com